“...The prisoner we took,” Revik cut in. “It is legal for us to have her. By the old laws, at least. Anyway, it was a mistake you made, bringing her here. It violated your own laws.”
“Our own laws, Revi’?”
“Yes,” Revik said, biting back anger. “She’s pregnant. Don’t pretend you didn’t know... or that to take a pregnant female captive in a human-run work camp doesn’t go against about a dozen laws of our people, yours and mine. To imprison one who carries a child of our race is unpardonable, and you know it. She should never have been there.”
Terian laughed, forcing Revik to fall silent.
He stood there, watching Terian laugh, fighting not to react.
“She shouldn’t have been in Saigon, either, Revi’...” Terian said then, his voice holding a colder, more meaningful edge. “...and yes, I know who the cunt is, and I know why you’re so hellbent on protecting her, brother... it’s the same reason you protected her then. Which is a bit rich, Revi’, given that she’s about to give birth to another man’s pup... or do you plan to take the child, too? Bring her back to Asia with you, so the three of you can play house in the Pamir?”
“It’s not like that,” Revik growled, unable to stop himself.
“Ah, hit a nerve have I?” Terian said.
“Stop making this about me!” he snapped.
“About you?” Terian raised an eyebrow in a mock innocence. “Whatever do you mean, Revi’?”
“You know damned well what I mean!”
“Do I?” Terian’s gaze flattened into a cold veneer, holding enough fury that Revik flinched, in spite of himself. “What do I care that you’re still trying to fuck that cunt, Revi’? What do I care that she’s mated? Pregnant? That she blatantly infiltrated you, used your hard-on for her light to manipulate you into betraying all of your friends... and then somehow coerced you into coming out here to defend her yet again? Why should I care that you’re still sniffing around her ass like a drunk adolescent? How is that my problem, Revi’? Shouldn’t that be her mate’s concern... not mine?”
Revik clenched his jaw, his hands balling into fists at his sides.
Don’t rise, brother, Balidor murmured. It’s what he wants...
Terian’s smile crept back across his dark lips.
“You really are blushing again.” Shaking his head, the Rook clicked his tongue, his smile widening. “I wouldn’t have believed it if I couldn’t see it with my own eyes. Gaos. It’s almost giving me a hard on now, Revi’––”
“Damn it, Terry,” Revik snapped, again speaking before he could pull it back. “You’re breaking treaty... you know you are, and so does Galaith. What the fuck do you want? Do you really plan to gun us down over a pregnant seer?”
“What makes you think Galaith would stop me, if I did?” Terian said.
He paused deliberately, staring up at Revik’s eyes.
His voice grew colder when he added, “...Or were you under the impression, Revi’, that I was the only one to hold a grudge over your leaving?”
Revik fought against the emotions he could see in Terian’s eyes, the conflicted loyalties he could feel his old friend trying to raise in Revik’s own light. The doubt. That implication that he’d betrayed them. That he’d betrayed Galaith. That he was at fault.
Tell him, Balidor prodded him then. The words Vash gave you. It is time, brother. We cannot prolong this much longer. He is growing increasingly unstable, your Rook friend...
Revik frowned at the “friend” comment, but didn’t answer.
He did give Balidor a brief glance, but turned away when he saw him nod.
Revik realized he was right.
About the instability, anyway.
“It’s part of the other treaty, Terry,” he said then, turning back to face Terian. “The one he made personally with Vash, after the war. Tell Galaith that.”
Terian just stared at him for a moment.
Revik found himself lost in that stare briefly, fighting not to care about what he saw, but drawn into the edges of it anyway. He saw reactions move and configure behind those amber eyes, saw tastes of emotion and personalities there and gone.
This was the body of Terian’s with which Revik was most familiar. It was the one Terry seemed the most fond of, too, landing most of his light body inside this vessel when it wasn’t needed elsewhere... cloning it again and again. Terian had been an experiment of Galaith’s, Revik knew. It was one thing he remembered, even if details around the specifics had faded from his mind. Terian split his light body out into multiple bodies in the living world.
Revik remembered them calling it “riding corpses” in some kind of twisted joke between the two of them.
Most of the Org soldiers here wouldn’t know that, though.
Revik wondered if Terian’s new boy-toy even knew... the lookalike.
Terian had other quirks with his bodies, in addition to favoring this one, Revik remembered. He dyed the hair on all of his male bodies to this same auburn color, unless there was an operational reason why he couldn’t. Revik couldn’t remember the reasons behind the preference, or even if he’d ever bothered to ask him while they’d been friends, but he remembered the detail with surprising clarity.
He tried to pull his feelings apart from everything he could see in that face.
The memories were fleeting, but Revik could feel tastes of emotion there, and not only in the seer standing before him.
The truth was, Balidor was right.
Terian had been his friend. Maybe Revik even still felt that way about him in a strange sense. Truly, though, their relationship had always been more big brother and little brother, with Revik playing the role of mentor and protector, due to some unspoken agreement between them.
Even so, when Revik was in the Org, Terry might have been the only thing standing between him and total disconnection with other beings.
Revik had been lonely in the Org, he remembered that much... intensely lonely, at times. He’d been lonely even when he had lovers that lasted more than a day or two... even when he tried to connect with others. Too often, friendships in the Org got mired in political complications, in power differentials, in agendas. The ones that didn’t often fell flat, or turned competitive in some way, mired in superficial, petty bullshit of one kind of another.
Terian at least gave a damn.
As batshit crazy as the seer was, Terry had given him warmth... affection, even.
Revik swallowed a little at the thought, refocusing on those amber eyes.
He didn’t want to give a damn. Hell, he couldn’t afford to give a damn.
Not now.
Even as he thought it, Terian broke the silence that had fallen over the clearing.
“And what ‘other treaty’ would that be, Revi’?” he said, lifting one eyebrow.
Leaning forward, he again rested his arms on the modified gun. Revik couldn’t help looking at it, even as a thought slid past his mind that he would miss some of the Org toys, too. Galaith, unlike the Adhipan and the Seven, worked with an almost unlimited budget, in no small part due to his strong ties in the human business world.
Terian’s voice sharpened.
“Revi’? What bullshit is this, old friend?”
Revik sighed a little, at least internally.
“I don’t know the specifics,” he said. “I’m just an emissary, too, brother.”
As soon as he said it, he felt his mistake.
Hostility swam through the light of the Org seers in front of him, and not only from Terian. Revik felt it most strongly from the gray-eyed seer who looked like him, as if the man wanted to hit him across the face for his words. It took Revik a second later to realize that the word that so infuriated them was “brother.”
They hated that he’d called Terian his brother.
“Ask Galaith,” Revik said, if only to end that silence. Feeling the hostility sharpen, Revik felt his muscles bunching up. He shifted his weight, even as his light and body began unconsciously gearing up for a fi
ght. “...Just fucking ask him, Terry,” he snapped, hearing the adrenaline in his voice. “Why are you prolonging this?”
“An emissary... is that what you are, Revi’?”
Revik’s jaw tightened. “Terry.”
“...How incredibly formal and official it all sounds... ‘emissary.’” Terian’s lip curled, but Revik felt the coil of anger there. “Do you really think––”
“Terry,” he cut in, his voice warning. “Ask him, or end this conversation. We’ll find another way to talk to your boss, if you’re not capable of passing on a simple fucking message.”
Terian’s eyes changed again.
The fury in his light turned cold as ice, stripped of pretense.
Revik felt others in the clearing react to it, too, especially on the Org side. Being hooked into the construct, they probably felt the real emotion there, without the shields held between Revik and the Rook leader. Revik caught movement as the Org seers looked at one another nervously, shifting their feet, rearranging hands on weapons and holsters.
Then Revik saw Terian give his new boyfriend a look, too, as if warning him about something, or communicating something maybe. It occurred to Revik only then that they were probably all talking outside of his hearing, too. His eyes followed Terian’s to the gray-eyed seer with the black hair. The other male looked nervous, but angry, too.
Revik wondered if he had any idea how dangerous his new playmate was.
Even as he thought it, Terian looked back at him.
“I have relayed your message,” he said, surprising Revik, not only with the words but with his matter-of-fact tone. All traces of that previous fury appeared to have vanished, for the moment, at least. “It probably doesn’t surprise you that he requires proof?”
Terian lifted an eyebrow, staring at him levelly.
Revik nodded, albeit reluctantly.
He expected this, but it was the part he dreaded, too.
It was also the part Balidor and Vash warned him about.
“Yes,” he said only. “He can get it off my light. Only him, though,” he warned, giving Terian a harder look.
Revik saw a bare smile touch Terian’s lips.
Then, the shield around him began to reconfigure.
Revik felt Balidor there, Vash, even Dalejem briefly, then––
Fuck. Holy fuck. He couldn’t do this.
He really couldn’t do this...
But it was already too late.
GALAITH’S LIGHT DESCENDED over Revik’s without preamble, without warning.
It felt like mercury being poured over his skin.
It clung there, melding into parts of Revik that hurt from the contact... maybe more from the absence of it, although he couldn’t determine that, either. Sickness washed over him, pulling at his separation pain, even as he felt grief from the other being’s light, a wanting of him...
Revik realized how long it had been since anyone wanted his light like that.
The sickness worsened.
He fought not to cry out, knowing they could probably all see it in his face, in his light, even as he felt Balidor and the others let this happen. They opened him up deliberately when he tried to get away, allowing Galaith to see the information they’d given him, what they’d imprinted on his light before they reached the clearing.
It was Kali, giving birth.
Markers in her light... markers in her child’s light.
He could see Vash and Galaith standing in a Barrier field of some kind. Galaith wore an avatar, like he always did, but Vash looked the same as he did in real life, in his physical body, his long face smiling sadly as he nodded to Galaith’s words.
They shook on that thing, whatever it was.
I was not the one to take her, Galaith told Revik softly before he left. Know that, brother Dehgoies. And know that you are missed greatly, and loved here...
Revik fought back another cry, even as he fought to extract himself...
That time, they let him.
The shield wove back around his light, blocking out those silver strands.
Revik felt worry there, apology, fear for him...
He felt Vash, Balidor, Dalejem, too... but he couldn’t let them in, either.
Revik slammed a shield down on his light that he didn’t know until then that he could have done, wouldn’t have known, even if he’d been asked. He forced all of them out, including Balidor, who stood right next to him now, practically touching him. Revik just stood there once he’d done it, breathing out, forcing emotion out of his light, pain, all of it. He closed his heart. He didn’t want to feel anything, ever again.
When Revik’s eyes finally cleared, he found himself looking at Terian.
He couldn’t tell by looking at him how much of that the Rook had seen.
Right about then, Revik didn’t really care.
He wanted out of there. Now.
Before he could voice that desire aloud, Terian spoke to him, his voice cold.
“Did you show daddy your favorite bitch, Revi’?” he said.
“Why don’t you ask him yourself, Terry?” Revik shot back.
He’d meant it sarcastically, but he saw Terian’s eyes shift almost at once. A second later, he realized the Rook was doing exactly as he’d suggested. Revik just stood there, glancing at the rest of the Org agents warily as they stared back at him, their hands and fingers rearranging themselves around different parts of the weapons they held.
Eventually, Terian clicked out.
Once he had, the anger flared back into those amber-colored irises.
“So, you got what you wanted,” Terian said. “How nice for you, Revi’... Galaith says we are to let you go your way, to discontinue our little search.”
His words had a strange distance to them that caused Revik to stare at him warily.
“...Galaith didn’t say, however, that we couldn’t extract a toll before you go, Revi’,” Terian said next, taking a few steps closer to him. Revik felt his body tense, but he was caught off guard, still off-balance from having Galaith so intimately in his light.
He didn’t see the knife.
He only felt it, when the sharp end of the blade was suddenly pressed to his throat.
Balidor’s light flared in alarm next to him, but Revik froze, staring down at Terian’s face, feeling his breath clenching in his chest.
He knew he was too late.
He knew how good Terian was with that knife. He should know. He’d watched him with it often enough. He also knew how fast he was. Cutting instruments of various kinds had always been Terry’s weapons of choice. He liked blood. The more, the better.
He even liked it during sex.
Forcing that image out of his mind, Revik kept his whole focus on the other seer, still struggling to keep from doing something stupid, something that would probably just get him killed. He could feel the blade pushing in his breath. He knew he could cut himself, just by swallowing, or by moving even a millimeter in the wrong direction.
Even so, the main emotion that slid into Revik’s mind was anger.
Terian seemed to see it. Or feel it, maybe.
Moreover, the anger there seemed to please him.
Terian smiled, angling the knife even closer. “Maybe I want to extract a toll from you, Revi’,” he said, his voice softer. “...before you go.”
Revik glanced quickly around the clearing, reminding himself of the locations of all of the Org infiltrators, in case this did turn into a fight.
He felt Balidor beside him once more, his light charged.
Furious. Brother Balidor was pissed as hell.
Don’t give him a reason to kill you, Balidor whispered in Revik’s mind.
Under different circumstances, Revik might have laughed.
Balidor’s light remained calm on the surface, a reminder for Revik to stay the same. Even so, Revik still felt the fury that surged beneath that gentle pull.
... Give us a minute, Balidor added, his light still reassuring. Vash is
talking to Galaith.
Revik fought back his own anger, forcing stillness into his aleimi.
He understood what Balidor was asking him. He wanted Revik to buy time.
Feeling his jaw clench, Revik returned his focus to Terian.
“Don’t do this, Terry,” he said.
He didn’t want to move his throat, so his voice came out soft.
“...You kill me, and the Org and the Seven break treaty,” he said, still in that near-murmur. “The Seven might be peaceful at base, but they won’t stand for that, and you know it.” Remembering Kali’s people, the ones her mate had brought with him, Revik added, “...You know what’s behind me in those hills. They’ll hunt you down like a rabid dog, just to make the point. And just like that, you and me are dead, and the cold war... this relative truce... it turns hot overnight. And then our people don’t have a chance in hell, Terry. None of us do. We won’t have to wait for the humans to kill us... we’ll do it to ourselves.”
Terian gave him a knowing smile. “Still the politician, aren’t you, Revi’?”
“You know I’m right.”
Revik didn’t add that he knew Terian cared more about the fate of the seer race than he usually let on. All of those in the Org did.
It was part of their ideology, twisted though it was.
“Do I?” Terian said coldly. “So why am I so confused by all of this, old friend?” He pressed the blade tighter to Revik’s throat and Revik flinched.
“What are you confused about, Terry?” he said, his voice still low.
“You, Revi’,” Terian said. “I’m confused about you, old friend. Why are you doing this? Why would you work for them? What’s in it for you, Revi’? Really?”
Revik felt his jaw clench.
“She’s an intermediary, Terry,” he said. “...Don’t tell me you didn’t know.”
Terian let out an angry laugh, pressing harder on the knife.
“You can’t kill her,” Revik said, raising his voice, even as he felt Balidor send a cautioning pulse his way. “You sure as fuck can’t kill her child. You know what it might mean...”
When Terian jabbed the blade deeper against his throat, actually cutting him that time, Revik let out a gasp. Anger swam through his light, along with pain, more than one kind that time.
Allie's War Early Years Page 59
